British Pat. No. 1,373,943 discloses a system in which the color-difference signals of a color T.V. signal are time-compressed and transmitted in time-division-multiplexed manner in alternate horizontal line intervals during time intervals corresponding approximately to the back porches of the color T.V. signal. To decode the thusly transmitted signals, the time-compressed color-difference signals are first applied to a storage which effects decompression (time-expansion), and then the decompressed color-difference signals are applied to another storage, so that the non-simultaneously transmitted (time-division-multiplexed) color-difference signals can be converted into simultaneous color-difference signals, for subsequent application to a conventional dematrix. The storages which can be used are per se conventional and include, for example, bucket-brigade storages, charge-coupled storages or series-anolog storages; time-compression and time-expansion of signals is per se conventional.
The disadvantage of the known decoding system is that the system inherently produces a marked deterioration in the signal-to-noise ratios of the signals. This is particularly the case when, in accordance with the known decoding system, a color-difference signal must be transmitted through a plurality of successive storages.